The use of surgical staples in the medical industry for closing wounds or incisions in the skin of a patient has grown over the last decade due to its advantages over thread sutures. One of the main advantages of surgical staples over thread sutures is the reduced amount of time required for surgical staples to be implanted. In cases where large incisions are made, the use of surgical staples can, for example, reduce the length of time required for the suturing process and thus the length of time the patient must be maintained under anesthesia.
Conventional surgical staples comprise an elongated crown and an L-shaped portion on each end of the crown, wherein when implanted in a patient, the crown is located on the exterior of the skin of the patient and the L-shaped portions are bent in a downward direction so that the ends of the L-shaped portions are opposed, thereby incising and gripping the skin. The aforementioned conventional surgical staple may be removed from the skin of a patient by bending the staple crown into a U-shaped configuration. This causes the L-shaped legs of the staple to shift upwardly and outwardly so that they may be lifted away from the patient's skin.
A conventional surgical staple remover 1, shown in FIG. 1, typically comprises a first handle 2 and a second handle 3 pivoted together at pivot point 11. Each handle includes circular finger inserts (4 and 5), each of which includes an orifice (6 and 7) for inserting a pair of fingers, such as a thumb and forefinger. The second handle 3 terminates in element 8 comprising two parallel, dual-pronged J-shaped units that are inserted under a surgical staple to be removed. The first handle 2 terminates in an anvil 10 that includes a downward facing footprint that is situated between the two units of the dual-pronged J-shaped element 8 and wherein the anvil 10 is placed on top of the crown of the surgical staple to be removed. When the conventional surgical staple remover 1 is gripped and contracted by a user, the downward facing footprint of anvil 10 applies force to the top of the crown of the surgical staple, thereby bending the staple crown into a U-shaped configuration. Consequently, the L-shaped legs of the staple are moved upwardly and outwardly, thereby lifting away from the patient's skin.
One of the disadvantages of a conventional surgical staple remover is that it does not adequately deal with the final disposition of the surgical staple being removed. It is common to have surgical staples jump into the air or fall away during removal. Personnel must then go about finding and disposing of the removed surgical staple and sterilizing anything the staple came into contact with. It is unsanitary to allow removed surgical staples to come into contact with individuals or things since implanted surgical staples have resided within a human's body and may contain biologically hazardous residue that could contaminate individuals and locations. Further, the process of cleaning up after the conventional removal of surgical staples is time consuming and expensive since proper decontamination and sterilization procedures, employing the use of costly protective equipment and cleaning materials, must be undertaken. Further, during an operation on a patient, it is imperative that all removed staples are accounted for, lest the removed staple falls into an open incision unnoticed.
Another disadvantage of a conventional surgical staple remover is that it requires that each removed surgical staple is immediately disposed of. That is, the doctor or technician must remove a surgical staple, place it in a receptacle, and then return to the wound to remove the next surgical staple. This is problematic as it requires that the doctor or technician temporarily lose sight of the wound while he disposes of the removed surgical staple.
Therefore, a need exists to overcome the problems the prior art as discussed above, and particularly for a more effective and efficient surgical staple remover, as well as a more sanitary and easy-to-operate surgical staple remover.